Another busy week at Davis as life gets progressively darker (and spookier!) with strange, sometimes unexplained phenomena.
The long dark winter night is nearly upon us. We are down to about 4 hours daylight but in just over two weeks, on the 1st June the sun will set at 2:10 pm and not rise again until 1:32 pm on 10th July.
At 68° 34′ South we are below the Antarctic Circle which means 39 days without seeing the sun, which can make anyone a little unhinged.
To add to the strangeness over the weekend the earth experienced a severe G4-G5 level geo-magnetic storm evidenced by spectacular auroras around the globe. Davis is normally about the best place on earth to see auroral activity, however cloud cover obscured the most intense manifestation (Luckily! We all remember what happened in ‘Day to Triffids’). Fortunately it’s a cracker year for auroras with the current solar cycle peaking in 2024, so we are happy for our mainland friends to share the experience.
This event coincided with high tides and shoreline flooding which created a 10 ft wide moat along the coastline. Coincidence?
While scanning the night sky for aurora an unidentified space craft streaked across the sky in low orbit. UFO or alien invasion?
In other news, training continues, combining quad bike refreshers and sea-ice testing with excellent ice thickness results both north and south of station. Once proven established travel routes can be opened for operational trips conduct scientific monitoring, including regular Deep Lake measurements (fun fact: the water in Deep Lake is −11.5°C but it's so salty it doesn’t freeze), and performing essential maintenance on field infrastructure, including field hut, and to enable access to the 'Whoop Whoop' skiway over winter to return it to operational readiness for summer aviation.
A big Mother’s Day shout out from everyone on station to our wonderful mums, partners and significant others.
Mark Austin
OIC & Meteorological Technician
Davis Station, Antarctica
